SPA Modeler

Oh man, I have no words for this. Beautiful, just beautiful! You know how to make a grown man cry seeing this coming together. Bravo!

I preter staying at Homewood Suites. Beds and pillows are so damn comfortable, I almost walked out with the pillows at the end of my stay.

Bazinga!

All the other descriptors were taken. Lovely colour mix Kenny.

Regards,

Not quite. I could have said...


HOLY F***! That is awesome @&#*$ing work you got going there Kenny! God D#$&< you're f*$?ing good at this! Holy #$%& !!! That's it, I'm $&%! ing retiring from this hobby.

Well, you get the idea... But we gotta keep it clean here.

Keep it PG

Mr. Black Sheep and Kent-

Thank you! I had to wake up at 4AM today because I’m supporting a post server OS pitching validation, and the kids were terrible last night. Didn’t get much sleep. And y’all’s comments made me happy and they made me chuckle.

I remember several months back, I’d had a problem with that Bird Cage Corsair I was working on. I can’t remember what the problem was, specifically, but I posted about it in my build thread and dropped several F-bombs. And Carlos PM’d me and very kindly and diplomatic ally explained to me that we had to keep things rated PG here, he was totally cool about it, he didn’t busy my chops or threaten to banhammer me, he just laid it out kindly and succinctly. And I remember thinking how cool he was (and still is) LOL Oh man...

Anyhow, thank you for the kind words about my paintwork and this project so far. There were a lot of things I wanted to accomplish when I set out to build and paint this aircraft. It’s kind of a departure from what I normally do, in the sense that I’m not portraying a heavily-weathered subject.

In many ways I’m a one trick pony when it comes to painting and weathering models. I black base them and then get the paint in there with lots of marble coats and light blend coats so there’s lots of modulation and tonal variation, and I chip the hell out of the paint, and add filters with thinned paint and oil paints and in doing so I get a weathered finish that I guess looks interesting enough, not to mention it hides all of the mistakes I make...

But this time around I wanted to do an aircraft that didn’t have need for all those extra paint effects. I wanted to take a relatively simple paint scheme and execute it in such a way as it’s still compelling. And the idea of doing a subject that was still relatively “pristine” appealed to me too. I haven’t had the opportunity yet to do an aircraft that was in super good shape all shiny and new, yet.

This project has not only helped me improve my construction skills -in areas which I’m still lacking skill in and need improvement, it’s also helped me learn how to tighten up my painting. She needs touch-ups here and there and that’s okay, I’ll take care of that and it’ll be easy, but by and large I feel like my painting improved a whole lot by doing this project. I got to try something different- subtlety. And I feel like that was good for me.

What’s that poem? “I’ve got promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep”???? I think that’s how it goes... I pulled the wiring harness In did months ago off the engine. I’ll be replacing it with the photo-etch wiring which came with the Eduard PE set. I’ll also be using other bits from that set as well- the actuators for the cowling flaps which Ive decided to display open, and I may use the PE flaps too. I’ll also be using the PE engine stays and wiring guides; the cowling is removable and the kit engine is incomplete in those regards. I didn’t want to display an incomplete engine. So I’m adding that stuff. I’ll also be adding plumbing with lead wire and whatnot. I figure it’s taken this long, why not out the same extra effort into the engine as I did with the cockpit? It’s what Mustang Joe would do. And I’ve been doing well putting in the extra time and effort so far.

I’m still poleaxed with anxiety about painting the insignias and stripes on her myself because of that issue with the tape pulling the primer off, earlier. But I’m going to move ahead with that anyway.

Anyhow, thank you guys again! You guys be well and have a nice weekend! :-)

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep...

Learned it from a 70’s Bronson movie. it’s also rather appropriate for certain times of soldiering involving long walks in the woods, where it would pop into my head...

Kenny, you may think your techniques a “one trick pony”. But to my eye, they rock, pure and simple. They work, and they look damn good (keeping it PG... kinda hard for an ex grunt like me at times). Take the time you need on the engine. I know that with your talents, it will come out looking mighty fine.

And don’t forget to get some sleep.

Kenny, you are a master at what you do. Your method of doing things is remarkable and enjoyable to see.

I have a long, long, long ways to go to reach that level. Frankly, I’m scared to try in fear of ruining a perfectly good model kit in trying new methods. I guess the feeling is the same with everyone here. I really need to buy a couple 1/48 scale aircraft kits - WW2 era and modern era just to practice these things.

Y’all are very kind and I appreciate the encouragement. Sincerely. And real quick, a word or two on making mistakes- I’ve made lots of them whilst trying new ideas and techniques. I can’t recall if it was three or four Corsairs I burned through. Too many, honestly. My 1.48 Zeke was a success in large part because of all the experimentation I conducted on the paint mule, on top of my previous mistakes. So ABSOLUTELY— practice on a mule or two or three ... dozen even, if you need to. By all means.

As to old Zeke here, I removed the wiring harness In preparation for the new one. I also sanded down the inside of the exhausts to thin them out (the tips will need some small bits of putty), and started sanding down the cowling flaps to thin those as well, and to remove the ejection pin marks as there’s a mild chance they could be visible if you look in there real close though to tell you the Gospel truth about it I’m not worried about removing every trace because they’ll be painted black and with the actuators installed and painted they’d be about the last thing for the eye to catch. I also started test-fitting the exhaust and other components on the back of the engine. Here’s some shots:

- Kari

beautiful!